Homage to the Inhibitor (BayBus)

Well guys, JDorn inspired me, and a fellow wanted it, so I made it. This baby has 6 switches, all switches are selectable from 12, off, or 5 volts, and each one has a nifty LED that glows brightly at 12 and dimly at 5, and very very very dimly at off

The back panel has a terminal pair per switch, and each terminal can carry the load of multiple devices. The whole beast fits in a drive bay. The black faceplate is the customer's which he sent to me. I'm not posting this to spam, I'm just pretty proud of it. In fact, I doubt if I'll tackle one this snazzy for a while. Enjoy! Sorry for the rather long load times, I compressed as much as practicable without losing detail.

Thanks for all the praise, guys. The gentleman that ordered this particular unit was very specific in his requirements. I generally don't go this far out into the stratosphere, as it gets to be quite labor-intensive (and expensive). I like to keep the price of the units down around $15-$25, and this one was *significantly* more than that. So if you want one, take a look at your options first, and we can probably work out a deal for something a little more in the realm of believability.

BTW- I like to call this the "BayBus". The Inhibitor II was JDorn's precursor to this one. Hence the "Homage"

CliffA, i like it, I was actually thinking of doing that exact same thing to my the prototype Inhibitor II I built a few weeks ago after talking in that thread with you. I thought it would be the ultimate in fan control technology but you beat me to it hehe.

I haven't really had time to work on any more projects lately so I haven't had any good ideas for a while. I see you found the "project enclosures" at Radio Shack, that is the exact same one I used in my device.

I have to give it up to you man, positions all with variable speeds, that just rocks.

I tried everything possible to fabricate an enclosure from aluminum to plastic, with the results looking about what you would expect them to look like. Crap. I finally went down there and bought the darn enclosure. I just wish they weren't so pricey. That silly thing really drives the price up, but it sure do look good...hides the inside well, too. I didn't post any pics of the inside, looks like an explosion in a pasta factory in there...

CliffA:I'm glad you exploded on the # of everything (though at request). Very scalable design.

And more on mounting, take a look at the baycoolers for those that have them. The face plate with the fans is mounted using the first set of screw holes for the 5.25 drives. That can be a more universal mounting if you can find it.

I find the idea of the enclosure nice, but it does take up an entire bay. I have one left out of 6.

Many have free internal bays, so you can offer an internal bay option and have a break out box for the switches. That's what I'm going to do with my setup.

I am going to use that internal 5.25 bay and mount something to it. The fans would get attached there, and from there wires would be bound and sent to a hole that I will make in my case. From there, the break out box. I will use velcro to attach the box to my computer.

CliffA, I know what you mean about the spagetti inside, the Inhibitor II that I built only uses 4 switches connected to one main power out lead and there are still alot of wires. I can't imagine having 6 switches worth of wires running to those 3 connector banks. You HAVE to have a project enclosure just to keep yourself from accidentally pulling a wire loose.

Raidio shack wants tooo damn much for them though. That size on is like $9 bucks if I remember right. I tried to build a metal encloure out of strips I cut off of old PS housings but when I tried to sodder the pieces together it got messy so I gave up and bought the enclousre too.

I still think it looks bad assed, you have topped me yet again. If you don't mind disclosing information here, could you tell me how much that thing cost to build?

When you see the pictures of the "Fanbus Extreme" that Atheist will be (hopefully) posting in a day or so, I think you'll see that what you are talking about is definitely a technique. Originally, I had planned on making a remote bus with a panel mounted switching panel, but when the pencil hit the paper it looked like it was going to be unmanageable. The wire count looked like:

num_wires_leading_to_remote_unit = num_switches + 2

Sans LED's, the number is = to number of switches + 1

So with that equation, I would've been faced with an eight wire bundle (of 18 gauge wire) leading to and from the internal bus. Even with Atheist's rig, it was 5 wires (three switches) which was just about the maximum that I felt comfortable with.

Even so, if you are short on free bays with external access, it is possible to make a breakout box. It just gets to be a bit kludgy in the final implementation. I've seen a unit in which the guy used a serial cable to carry the wires in a neat bundle, but I'm skeptical about the load carrying capacity of such an arrangement. I'm looking forward to seeing your rig when it's finished, for sure. The customer in question has scew mounted bay blanks, so I didn't include a way to screw in the case to the rails. If he needs it, I can provide it of course. If you know where I could get hold of some bare kits like the one you described, I'd be interested for sure.